What to do with a broken DS Lite?

Dissect it and post pictures on the web.

Turn it into the nerdiest wallet imagineable.

It's a long shot, but it might be worth trying another AC adapter in case that's the broken bit. You can get a cheap off-brand one at GameStop.

phred has it. Look for a crusty mom-n-pop used-games place. If they can't fix it, heck, you're out a burger and a beer.

Thirding phredgreen's suggestion. Our local independent video game guys can diagnose all kinds of problems (diagnosis is almost always free). Once you get a diagnosis you'll know whether it's an easy and inexpensive fix or whether you should just toss it.

Pull the battery entirely, then wait for a minute or two, then put it back in. Should prompt a hard-reset. Hey, it's worth a shot.

box: Thanks for the suggestion, but it doesn't seem to make any difference. The indicator light only comes on when the AC adapter is plugged in - when it's just the battery I can't get any response at all from the DS. Both batteries are the same way. I should note that these results are with an empty DS - I don't have any games to test it with. Based on past experience with Nintendo products, I'm assuming that the power button not working at all (nothing on the screen and no sound) is not normal behaviour for a game-less DS.

Yeah, the DS would normally still power on, even without a game in it.

I'm wondering, from the way you describe it, if it isn't that both batteries are all-the-way dead. I had a laptop a while back that, when the battery stopped holding a charge at all, stopped functioning even with the AC adapter plugged in.